Dating App Wars | Lighting Up Match.com | 1

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2020

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s 1995, and computer dating is in its infancy. Most people think it’s a dark, sleazy world for desperate losers and horny perverts. But that’s all about to change. Pioneer site Match.com paves the way for cyber dating to move toward mainstream culture, but—in an era when few people even use a computer—it’s going to be a serious struggle.

And as the dating market blossoms, burgeoning companies will stop at nothing to get the coveted edge, fighting for hip cache, consumer convenience and tech advances. It’s a tough business, but all’s fair in online love and war.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members. You can listen to business wars. Add free on Amazon music. Download the app today.
0:16.0	It's 1997. Shannon, a woman in her late 20s, walks into a crowded downtown bar.
0:22.1	She's excited and maybe a little anxious. She scans the room. She's looking for her date. A man she's never met before.
0:30.6	Not in person anyway. Their connection is through match.com. An online dating site that debuted two years ago.
0:38.4	Shannon's used it a few times. It can be a real crap shoot.
0:43.1	She sees the guy. He's sitting alone looking at a drink menu.
0:47.4	She sucks in her stomach and pulls up her cargo pants, just like the one's Jennifer Aniston wears.
0:53.1	And elbows her way through the happy hour crowd to his table.
0:56.5	Uh, Chad? The guy glances up and smiles.
1:00.8	Other than his boy band hairdo, he actually looks like his picture. He's cute.
1:06.8	Hey, you recognize me, even with a frosted tips. And you must be Shannon.
1:12.1	Guilty as charged. And uh, nice frosted tips.
1:16.7	They both laugh as he gets up and pulls the chair out for bonus points for that move, she thinks.
1:22.6	So look, I know this is awkward. This whole online dating thing.
1:27.0	Can we make a pact right now? Um, I guess so. If we end up, you know, working out,
1:34.0	the fact that we met online, we don't tell the grandkids.
1:38.8	You might be jumping the gun a bit, but absolutely.
1:42.6	They're not kidding. In the late 90s, there's a serious stigma attached to online dating.
1:48.0	It tends to attract those looking for one night stands and short-term hookups.
1:52.2	For those searching for a serious relationship, it seems, well, desperate.
1:58.8	The waiter walks up and Chad orders.
2:01.4	Hi, I'll have a Michelo Bamber and the lady will have a white Russian. That's right.
	...

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